China’s president Xi Jinping has painted himself into a corner, summarizes the famous economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, the economic dilemma China finds itself in, according to NPR. “He cannot back down from his China Model.”
NPR:
But Xi has dug in his heels, China’s economy continues to outpace much of the world, and China’s leader has continued to promote the state-heavy China model. “Xi has kind of painted himself into a corner,” says Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know. “He’s said ‘We have this China model, it’s doing its own thing, China needs to become this great power.’ He can’t back down from that.”
Kroeber says Xi’s style of leadership is a departure from former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, whose credo for dealing with the outside world was “Hide your strength and bide your time.”
“The genius of Deng Xiaoping’s ‘hide and bide’ strategy is that it gives you a lot of freedom of movement,” says Kroeber. “You have not committed yourself to anything specific that it would be difficult to back down from.”
Kroeber says the problem with Xi’s assertive style is that when he’s challenged, as he is now by Trump, he has to stand his ground, and that can become costly.
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